Charles Ryan

Major General Sir Charles Snodgrass Ryan, (20 September 1853 – 23 October 1926) was an Australian surgeon and army officer.

Early life Ryan was born at Killeen station, Longwood, Victoria, second son of Charles Ryan, an Irish overlander from New South Wales who founded the stock and station firm of Ryan & Hammond, and his wife Marian, daughter of John Cotton, a British poet, ornithological writer and artist, who became an early pastoral settler in Victoria, Australia. Ryan was educated at the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, and subsequently at the University of Melbourne, as a student of medicine; afterwards he proceeded to Edinburgh, where he graduated in medicine and surgery, and took the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery. He then travelled on the Continent and studied medicine in France, Austria, and Italy.

In Turkey In September 1876, Ryan entered the Turkish service, and was forthwith sent to Nisch, where he was placed in charge of a large hospital during the Serbian war.

Appointments As a colonel, Ryan was appointed principal medical officer, Victoria, in 1902; and honorary physician to the governor-general in 1904. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Ryan became assistant director of medical services, 1st Division, Australian Imperial Force. He sailed for Egypt in October and was appointed to the staff of Lieutenant General Sir William Birdwood. On landing at Gallipoli he faced an enemy whose country he had served nearly forty years before. Ryan contracted Typhoid fever in June 1915 and was evacuated to Egypt and later to England. From July 1916 he served in London as consulting surgeon, medical headquarters staff, AIF, and achieved a reputation for his toughness on medical boards. Ryan was appointed honorary surgeon-general, Australian Military Forces, in August 1917 and returned to Australia in May 1919. In July 1919 he was placed on the retired list with the honorary rank of major general. Ryan had received the Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1916, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. They had a son, Rupert Ryan who became a soldier and Federal politician; and a daughter, Ethel Marian Sumner Ryan, a pioneer aviator and poet who married Richard Casey, Baron Casey.

His sister was the noted botanical painter Ellis Rowan.

Ryan died at sea, on board the Otranto, near Adelaide, while on a return voyage from Europe on 23 October 1926.